Tomorrow Is A Mystery
by The Grimm Reaper
Summary: AU KFP What if Po wasn't a bumbling Panda, but a snow leopard like Tai Lung? What if he was employed at the Jade Palace before the events of the film? What if he was a badass all the time? Loosely inspired by vorvol's Fury. Eventual TiPo.


The young snow leopard took a deep breath as he stood at the red wood entrance to the renowned Jade Palace, a small suitcase sitting at his side. The thousand steps up the mountain on which the palace sat was difficult, certainly, but his upbringing in a catering business saw him rising to the challenge with little trouble. His mind was brought back to the dream he'd had the night prior. He dreamed he was a panda, which was odd, because he'd never seen one before. He imagined that the steps leading up to the palace would be a personal hell for such a person.

Realizing he was getting distracted, the snow leopard knocked on the door, refocusing his thoughts back to his new job. It was his first day, and he was determined to make a good impression. Serving as the Jade Palace's new cook was an honour one did not take half-heartedly. But even if he weren't cooking for the residents of the palace, even if it were for the common people, of which he was one; he would take his role just as seriously. The young feline was a professional, and he planned to prove it.

The door opened slightly with a wooden creak to reveal a grey goose who wore an indifferent expression, yet his eyes portrayed his skittish nature. Upon seeing the new cook before him, he seemed to perk up a little.

"Ah, you must be the new cook, yes?" he asked. The snow leopard confirmed with a nod before the goose opened the entrance completely to allow him through. Walking past the palace arena towards the student barracks, the goose introduced himself as Zeng. Zeng was the palace servant/messenger. Quite a demanding job, one the snow leopard felt he would never be able to do. Catering to customers and cleaning a small business like his father's noodle shop often left him drained of energy. Doing that and more for such a large place as the Jade Palace was beyond him, and he knew it. He was thankful that his job would be restricted to just the barracks, where the kitchen was; _his_ kitchen.

As eager as he was to see his new kitchen, he had a few questions for his senior servant.

"Just to clarify, I was told that this was a live-in position. Is that true?" the goose nodded. Zeng opened the doors to the barracks and motioned with one of his feathered fingers to be silent as they walked past.

The cook noticed a long corridor with eight paper sliding doors, four on each side. Given the length of the corridor, the cook guessed that each room was roughly nine by five meters squared; around the size of his room back home. Zeng got his attention once again when he began to whisper.

"As I was the only servant before today, the servants' quarters weren't renovated to accommodate you, so you'll be staying in the student barracks until further notice. Your room is this one here, across from Master Tigress." Zeng said, directing him to the room furthest from the entrance on the left side. He opened the door to show him what he'd be living with. As guessed, the dimensions were correct. A simple bamboo bed lay along the back wall, a dresser sat to the right, near the entrance. A simple green mat covered two thirds of the floor and a chair sat by the bed. It was minimalist, with only the bare necessities. It made sense, given that this was a place devoted solely to Kung Fu.

The cook stepped into his new room, getting a better feel for the place he'd be sleeping. It wasn't the most inviting environment, but that didn't matter to him. It was functional and would serve its purpose. With a satisfied huff, the young snow leopard placed his suitcase on the bed and left it there, returning to the patient goose. Zeng led the cook through to the kitchen past the hallway. Unlike the minimalist rooms, the kitchen was extravagant by comparison. It sported an open dining area with a small kitchen space and counter. It was basically his dad's noodle shop indoors. However, this place had much richer materials, such as gold and jade incorporated into the environment. Actually, now that he looked at it, the cook noticed that the kitchen itself was rather messy.

"Who was the cook before me?" he asked, looking down to Zeng. The goose made eye contact with the new cook and nearly honked in surprise at the sharpness of his junior's eyes.

"Th-there was no-one before you. As I said before, I was the only servant at the palace until now. The masters were in charge of preparing their own food." A quiet but unmistakable growl escaped the cook's throat. Seems he had some cleaning to do before breakfast.

The cook made his way into the kitchen, removing his faded blue hanfu coat and placing it on a hook by the door. Underneath the coat he wore a simple blue vest held together with small metal fasteners and a waist wrap along with dark brown pants and black sandals.

His form was lithe. Upon seeing him without the coat, Zeng compared him to a snow leopard version of Master Tigress, a comparison neither party would like if it got out. In actuality, the cook was a head taller than Tigress, and his muscles weren't as developed. Zeng's thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of pots clanging. And he went to look at what he was doing.

He was cleaning. Whoever cooked last night had not seen fit to clean up after themselves, and what remained of the meal –if it could even be called that- was still in the large pot. "Could you get me the dishes from the dining area out there while I'm dealing with this please?" the cook asked. Zeng complied, surprised that the young snow leopard was already diving into his work. He expected to be giving him a tour of the palace and introducing him to the masters before he'd have to make a start on lunch. But it seemed he was determined to clean everything up before breakfast. _Finally_, Zeng thought, _someone who has a strong work ethic like me!_

* * *

Zeng and the cook spent the better part of the morning cleaning. When the pots and pans were sparkling again, the cook seemed to relax. "Excellent, and I've got time to make breakfast." he said, wiping his brow. He turned to Zeng. "Now then, are there any allergies I should know about?"

It took Zeng a second to respond. "Master Crane has a peanut allergy, but other than that, no. Just keep the oil, sugar and salt to a minimum, as it tends to make the masters sluggish." he replied. The snow leopard nodded in understanding.

"Understood." without another word, he went to work. Using the flat board by the open window counter, the cook poured a generous helping of flour. Using his paw, he made a crater in the pile, then added water. _The trick is to balance the flour and water. If the room is warm I need less water. But the room is cold now, so I need more._ As the cook thought about his process, he added more water. Once this was done, he began scraping away at the walls of the crater, mixing the flour with the water. When everything was sufficiently mixed, he began rolling it around. At first, it liked like bits of powdery dough clumped together, but as he kept rolling and pressing, it began to look like one big ball of dough. When he was done, he wet it a little more, until it was shiny and there was no sign of flour, just dough. He began to press it down and lengthen it out as well as roll and fold it back in.

When he was satisfied, he grabbed both ends of the dough and stretched it out. It was super elastic. He then folded it in two and twisted together. When that was done, he repeated the process, but when he stretched it out, he made a motion with his hands that caused the dough to spin and twist around itself. This was to enhance the elasticity. He repeated this many times.

After a few dozen repeats of the process, the cook grabbed a knife and began cutting it into foot long sections. Zeng just watched in fascination. But after the knife first went down, the noise it made brought him out of his stupor.

"Well, I see you have everything in order here. If you don't need me for anything else, I must return to my duties." The snow leopard mumbled a confirmation, clearly focused on his work. "Oh, I just realised that I forgot to ask your name." Zeng added, stopping at the door.

The snow leopard paused in his work and looked at the goose, a gentle smile on his face. "It's Po." he said. With that, he returned to his work, as did Zeng. Po grabbed a large pot and poured some water in. He then ignited the stove and left the pot to boil. Returning to the dough cuts, he threw a layer of flour on the flat bench once more and grabbed one of the cuts. Rolling it around until it was coated in the flour, he began the process of stretching it. He did it differently than before, instead of flicking it around and causing it to twist, he simply folded it. One noodle became two, two became four, four became eight and so on. Within ten seconds, he held one hundred and twenty eight noodles in his hand. Satisfied with the result, he began flicking one end, the motion traveling along the noodles, causing them to flail around in the flour. It was like the noodles were dancing.

He repeated the process with several more cuts of dough until there were over a thousand noodles. _Should be enough for seconds if anybody wants it_. He thought. As he poured the noodles into the now boiling pot, he stirred it around slightly before going over to the vegetables. Chopping up some onions, carrots, bok choy and various other ingredients, he added them to the pot to give the noodles some flavour. But he wasn't done there. He looked around for the spices, when he found them; he noticed four items he could add to the pot. First were sesame seeds. He was instructed to go light on the oils, and while sesame seed oil was a staple in most Chinese cuisine, the next best thing was the seeds themselves. Grabbing a handful of those, he placed them in a mixing bowl and began crushing them. When they were finely crushed, he poured soy sauce into the bowl and stirred it around gently before adding the contents into the pot. The colour of the water and the noodles changed almost instantly.

Next were the green onions. Po took a handful and began chopping up the leaves of the green onions, making sure to discard the roots. When that was done, he poured it into the pot.

He then found some cassia; Chinese cinnamon. He poured about half a cup of the cinnamon into the pot. It would serve to add a spicy yet sweet flavour to the mix.

Finally, he found some star anise. The seeds would go well with what he was cooking up. Four stars were taken, their seeds extracted and placed into the pot. When that was done, Po began stirring once again, making sure that every noodle was drowned in the flavour.

* * *

Five students stepped into the dining area; a praying mantis, a crane, a monkey, a viper and a tiger. These individuals were known as the Furious Five; five masters of Kung Fu brought together into a legendary team. For five years, these masters of Kung Fu were responsible for the continued safety of the Valley of Peace and its people.

Master Monkey was the first to notice the delicious smell wafting through the air. "Wow, what's cooking?" he asked, turning to his fellow masters. Mantis was the first to respond.

"Whatever it is, it smells great. So it's obviously not your cooking." Monkey caught the wise-crack and was about to retort when a tall lithe snow leopard came out of the kitchen holding a large pot of something and five bowls balanced on his tail.

As he set the pot down in the middle of the table, he brought the bowls around and set them around each placing. As he went back to the counter, he addressed the five.

"You're all just in time." he said, moving to place a pair of chopsticks beside each bowl. When he was done, he bowed formally to the masters. "My name is Po. I'll be your cook for the foreseeable future." While Viper, Crane and Tigress bowed back, Mantis and Monkey dispensed with the formalities and took their seats.

"It's nice to meet you, Po." Viper responded, moving to take her seat.

"Yeah, welcome to the Jade Palace." Crane added, taking his place also.

Tigress stayed where she was, however, looking the snow leopard over with suspicion. "I wasn't aware that we were getting a new cook." she said. Her orange eyes bore into Po's brilliant yellow eyes. The snow leopard seemed unfazed by her gaze.

"Master Shifu employed my services yesterday. He explained that time would best be saved by hiring someone else to prepare their meals beforehand, allowing you to focus more on your training." he replied. Tigress and the hungry four at the table were silent as they processed his words. It sounded like something Shifu would say. "As for why you weren't informed beforehand, that's a matter you'll have to bring up with Master Shifu. For now, please, sit and enjoy your breakfast." Po motioned towards the empty seat. Tigress remained silent as she obliged, and sat down.

On one side of the table sat Tigress, Monkey and Mantis, facing the kitchen. Across from them sat Crane and Viper. All masters aside from Tigress were visibly sniffing the air, their mouths watering at the smell. Po took that as a signal to begin serving. Taking each bowl, he served equal portions and handed each off to the waiting masters. "Feedback is appreciated. Let me know what I can improve upon. Master Crane, I've been made aware of your peanut allergy, so rest assured that should one of my recipes require peanuts or peanut oil or some other facsimile, I'll be sure to cook a substitute for you." Po said, addressing the flying master. Crane smiled under his bamboo hat. Thanking the new cook, the five dug into their breakfast. Upon the first sip, joy was written on their faces, with the exception of Tigress. Though she hid her emotions well, Po could tell she liked the food. While a smile didn't make its way onto her face, her eyes widened in surprise. Of course, it could also be the fact that she abandoned the chopsticks and began swallowing the contents of her bowl like a drink. The other four fared little better, Mantis going so far as to dive right into his bowl. Viper was fighting the urge to unhinge her jaw and swallow the bowl along with its contents.

Po took their ravenous reactions to his cooking as a solid compliment. But something was still bothering him. "While I have you all here," he began, circling the table as he spoke. He grabbed a wooden spoon from the counter as he walked past Viper and Crane. "Who was responsible for last night's meal?" he asked. Nearly every mouth paused as four pairs of eyes focused on Monkey. "I see." Po stopped behind Monkey who was still eating away blissfully. As if the moment was timed perfectly, Monkey finished his meal and held out his bowl in front of him.

"More please!" he called. Less than a second later, a wooden spoon was cracked on the master's head. Monkey dropped his bowl and placed both hands on his now sore head. The actions of the cook were so unexpected, that everybody flinched, even Tigress who never saw the hit coming. "Ow! What gives?" Monkey demanded, looking crossly at the snow leopard, only for his protests to catch in his mouth when he saw the blazing eyes staring directly at him. The warm meals in their bodies froze as they were paralysed under the cook's gaze.

"You should be ashamed of yourself for leaving the kitchen in such a state as you did. I spent the better part of my morning cleaning up after you. If it weren't for Zeng's help you'd all be going hungry, as I wouldn't have had the time to make breakfast for you." Monkey swallowed hard. Only Master Shifu, Tigress and Viper could scare him like this, yet here was the new guy, the cook of all things. And all Monkey could think was he'd rather risk upsetting Tigress than him. "So what you're going to do, is when Master Shifu lets you off for Lunch, you're going to find Zeng and thank him for helping me to clean up after you. If you fail to do this, you'll be cleaning up after lunch in my stead. If you fail to thank Zeng before Dinner, you will go without. Am I clear?"

The Kung Fu master looked on the verge of tears, curled up as small as he could make himself under the deathly gaze of the cook. Like a sulking child, Monkey replied.

"Y-yes…"

"Yes what?" Po demanded.

"Yes _sir_." Monkey replied. As soon as those words left his lips, the room suddenly felt lighter as Po's gaze softened. The snow leopard grabbed Monkey's bowl and returned to the pot, filling it back up again. He then placed it back in front of Monkey who could only stare at the bowl in confusion.


End file.
